July 1995 Physics Today Contents


Articles:

Thermoacoustic Engines and Refrigerators

On the heels of basic research, commercial developers are harnessing acoustic processes in gases to make reliable, inexpensive engines and cooling devices with no moving parts and a significant fraction of Carnot's efficiency -- Gregory W. Swift
(Link to thermoacoustics home page, which includes animations.)

The Discovery of Superfluidity

Superfluidity and superconductivity have strong analogies to each other. Why then did over a quarter of a century pass between the discoveries of these two phenomena? -- Russell J. Donnelly


Departments:

Reference Frame

The most tenuous of molecules -- Daniel Kleppner

Search and Discovery

Atom interferometers prove their worth in atomic measurements. Researchers have used an atom interferometer to measure for the first time the complex index of refraction for an atom wave passing through a gas and to determine the electrical polarizability of an atom more precisely than before.

In a two-dimensional electron system, the skyrmion's the limit. A sensitive nmr technique has found evidence for skyrmions in a two-dimensional electron system and challenged our understanding of the quantum Hall effects.

Meeting Preview

ACA Meets in Montreal, Marking 100 Years of X Rays
(Link to home page of ACA meeting.)

Washington Reports

As Republicans try to pull DOE's plug, department officials defend operations

The budget action ahead

Sure of basic science's payoff in technology, White House economists speak up for research

Physics Community

To win NPT extension, nuclear states promise test ban and disarmament -- again. The Nonproliferation Treaty has nearly universal support, but can its lofty disarmament goals be reached?

Technology may help contain the nuclear genie

Boyce passes AAS executive office to Milkey

APS says dangers from EMFs are unsubstantiated
Links to:

Opinion

Why I am / am not a physicist -- Neil Gershenfeld

Books

The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, R. Omnes (reviewed by R. Scalettar)

Veiled Reality: An Analysis of Present-Day Quantum Mechanical Concepts, B. d'Espagnat (reviewed by R. Scalettar)

High Energy Astrophysics: Vol. 2, M. S. Longair (reviewed by G. B. Yodh)

The Cosmological Milkshake: A Semi-Serious Look at the Size of Things, R. E. Ehrlich (reviewed by B. B. Schwartz)

Dynamics: Numerical Explorations, H. Nusse and J. A. Yorke (reviewed by W. L. Ditto)

A Friendly Guide to Wavelets, G. Kaiser (reviewed by L. H. Hudgins)

Plus...

Our regular sections: Physics Update, Letters, New Products, We Hear That, and Information Exchange.

Also included with the July 1995 Physics Today:

The inaugural issue of The Industrial Physicist


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